MICROWAVE – New Media Arts Festival Hong Kong

As we evolve into an increasingly automated society of convenience, technology becomes a vital appendage of our bodies; allowing hard workers to no longer separate between day and night, making us feel restless every time the mobile phone is left at home. But is our love affair with technology making life better, or turning into a weapon of mass destruction against our planet?

In 2009, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival wants to examine our relationship with nature, as both sides struggle to take on challenges we continuously provide each other with. Presenting artworks that combine academic research, creative concepts and environmental awareness, this year we hope to bring to Hong Kong ideas that will trigger self-reflexive contemplation, leading to a better understanding of our correlation with nature, the extent of it, and the significance of it.

We love our habitat, that’s why we try to transform it by all means, like what we did in a relationship; and we eventually know that – may we will finally destroy each other. This is what we want to explore this year.
About our habitat, about our “nature”, about our current situation. Artists around the world would be selected to Microwave for a series of inspiriting programmes including exhibitions, workshops, screenings, conference and performance in the festival (13th – 22nd Nov 2009).
Microwave as an art and creative organization which always present various programmes to promote media arts (the perfect blending of technology and art) and support public education; we used to present
our annual festival since 1996, with the support of government units (e.g. Hong Kong Arts Development Council). And we also organized numbers of outdoor concerts, performances, workshops, competition
etc. to increase public engagement to art and culture. Stepping into our 13th anniversary, Microwave Festival 2009 will present to Hong Kong imaginations on ways that interpret the ecology aspect as well as
the evolution of human perception on outer world through creative uses of today’s technology.

About Microwave

Microwave Festival began in 1996 as an annual video art festival of the local video art institution Videotage. But as technology progressed and became more accessible, video art slowly evolved to involve other media; thus Microwave began to embrace the wider range of new media art. Eventually branching out as an independent art festival dedicated to new media art, Microwave has steadily grown into a well-established festival that brings cutting-edge works to provoke thought in the technological hub that is Hong Kong every year.

Now stepping into our 13th year, Microwave will continue its hard work to inspire Hong Kong and the rest of the world with pioneering media artworks selected to suit themes relevant to our society today, while also avidly supporting the exchange and dialogue between artists, professionals and the general public. Microwave envisions that through its network, Hong Kong artists will be introduced to international institutions and curators, working as a platform and gateway for them to develop their art and skills. Apart from the grand annual festival, Microwave also endeavours to nurture a rising local new media arts community, organising various programmes such as educational workshops, seminars, forums and exhibitions.